Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings: SOS for Ten

The ABBA doco on ABC1 should have been grabbed by Ten, or made by Ten, it’s the network’s core strength and audience if it thinks about.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: ABC1’s ABBA special last night was fantastic (and I was never a big fan). Excellent TV because it explained a small but significant part of Australian cultural history. And, by the way there was a nice example of a person well named for their job. The doco was edited by Charlotte Cutting, and well edited it was!

The ABBA special had 925,000 metro and well over 1.4 million national viewers, most of them above the age of 4o.

Seven’s My Kitchen Rules dominated the night with more than 1.6 million metro and well over 2.4 million national viewers (for a second night). Nine ran dead and second. Ten just showed up and was well beaten by the ABC.

Glee bombed last night for Ten, with two new episodes. Number one at 7.30pm averaged 373,000, number two at 8.30pm had 413,000. The ABBA doco should have been grabbed by Ten, or made by Ten, it’s the network’s core strength and audience. Ten’s hour-long edited highlights of the AACTA awards averaged 318,000 at 9.30pm. So much for the lure of actors in Australia. In regional areas, Ten finished fourth and its main channel share of 6.1% was appallingly low. The ABC and ABC1 are well ahead of Ten in these markets this week.

Seven’s flirtation with the hour-long news special from 6 to 7pm had a large hole shot in it last night with Nine News and A Current Affair easily accounting for the idea, especially in Melbourne where Seven News lost by 184,000 to Nine News and A Current Affair flogged Today Tonight by 175,000 viewers.

Tonight: American idol on Ten. Nine has more repeats and drags out the tired old The Shawshank Redemption for yet another outing. Seven returns Grimm from 9.30pm with back-to-back episodes. That’s after a repeat of that tiring movie Legally Blonde. The night though belongs to Nigella on ABC1 at 8.30pm. SBS has a mixture of foodie programs from 7.30pm, most are repeats. A grim night on the whole.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 2.431 million.

Nine News — 1.695 million.

A Current Affair — 1.605 million.

Seven News — 1.536 million.

ABC1 News — 1.478 million.

ABBA (ABC1) — 1.402 million.

Home and Away (Seven) — 1.357 million.

Today Tonight — 1.225 million.

7.30 (ABC1) — 1.062 million.

Forrest Gump (Seven) — 1.020 million.

The Metro Winners: Last night’s figures should be a lesson to Seven, if they change the 6 to 7pm slot then life will be tough.

My Kitchen Rules (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.655 million.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.181 million.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.138 million.

A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.078 million.

ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.030 million.

Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.026 million.

The Losers: Ten (Glee with two new episodes, both unwatched), Seven in Melbourne at 6pm and 6.30pm.

Metro News & CA: Nine gave Seven a good whacking in Melbourne. Leigh Sales was in Washington for the Hillary Clinton special, meaning Chris Uhlmann got to sit in the chair and cover the election announcement.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.181 million.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.138 million.

A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.078 million.

ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.030 million.

Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.026 million.

7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 715,000.

Ten News (5 pm) — 662,000.

The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 472,000.

Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 169,000.

Lateline (ABC1, 10.25pm) — 151,000.

SBS ONE News (6.30pm) — 115,000.

SBS ONE Late News (10.30pm) — 114,000.

The Business (ABC 1, 11pm, repeat) — 91,000.

The Drum (News 24, 10pm, repeat) — 44,000.

In the morning: Sunrise ran long by an hour for the flood coverage.

Sunrise (Seven 7am) — 345,000.

Today (Nine, 7am) — 325,000.

The Morning Show (Seven, 10am) — 179,000.

Mornings Summer (Nine, 9am) — 125,000.

News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 59,000 + 34,000 on News 24*.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 34.3% from Nine (three) on 24.7%, the ABC (four) was on 19.5%, Ten (three) was on 15.4% and SBS (three) ended on 6.1%. Seven leads the week with 37.1% from Nine on 26.1%, Ten on 16.6% and the ABC on 15.5%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 27.6% from Nine on 17.8%, ABC1 was on 14.7%, Ten was back on 9.7% and SBS ONE was on 4.9%. Seven leads the week with 31.3% from Nine on 19.4%, Ten on 11.2% and ABC1 on 11.1%.

Metro Digital: Gem won with a share of 4.2%, from Eleven on 3.5%, 7mate on 3.4%, 7TWO on 3.3% ABC2 was on 2.9%, GO was on 2.7%, ONE was on 2.2%, SBS TWO, 1.2%, News 24, 1.0%, ABC3, 0.8% and NITV, 0.1%. The 11 channels had an FTA share total last night of 25.2%. GO leads the week with 3.8% from 7TWO on 3.1% and Gem and Eleven on 2.8%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 28.2% from Nine (three) on 20.3%, the ABC (four) was on 16.0%, Ten (three) was on 12.7% and SBS (three) ended on 5.0%. The 16 FTA channels had a total share last night of 84.1%, with the 11 digital channels on 20.8% and the five main channels share was 63.3%. Pay TV’s share was 15.9% based on the 200 plus channels on the Foxtel platform. The election being called helped boost Sky News last night with Paul Murray Live getting a solid 45,000 viewers at 9pm

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox8 — 4.2%.

TV 1 — 2.4%.

LifeStyle — 2.2%.

Sky News, Cartoon Net. — 1.9%.

A&E — 1.7%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

Family Guy (Fox8) — 74,000.

WWE Raw (F8) — 73,000.

The Simpsons (F8) — 68,000.

The Simpsons (F8) — 67,000.

Family Guy (F8) — 62,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 37.9% from WIN/NBN (three) on 27.3%, the ABC (four) was on 17.6%, SC Ten (three) 11.9%, and SBS (three) was on 5.3%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 28.6%, from WIN/NBN on 19.0%, ABC1, 13.0% and SC Ten, 6.1%. The digitals were won by 7mate with 5.2%, from Gem on 5.0% and 7TWO on 4.2%. The 11 digital channels had a total FTA viewing of 28.3% last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 36.9% from WIN/NBN on 28.9%, the ABC with 15.9% and SC Ten was on 13.95%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

My Kitchen Rules — 776,000.

A Current Affair — 527,000.

Nine News — 512,000.

ABBA — 475,000.

Home and Away — 462,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep (overall and main channels) for Seven in all five metro markets. Nine was second everywhere bar the main channels in Adelaide and Perth where ABC1 got up and Nine was third. Ten was third overall in Brisbane, but the ABC was third everywhere else. Gem won the digitals in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Eleven won Brisbane and 7TWO Adelaide. Seven leads the week: Nine, Ten and the ABC are in the minor placings.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)